You might have asked yourself how NABERS UK will affect your office space since the scheme first became available in late 2020. NABERS UK is the result of the collaboration between the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) and the Better Buildings Partnership (BRE). It’s an energy efficiency rating system that allows asset owners, managers and tenants to measure and improve the operational performance of office buildings within their portfolios.

In Australia, NABERS proved over 20 years that measuring energy consumption in buildings improves the efficiency in how they are managed with clients saving an average of 30-40 per cent on their energy over the last 10 years alone. Furthermore, tenants are actively looking for better performing buildings and are willing to pay more for these properties, which demonstrates that improvements are worthwhile. This tried and tested method in Australia shows the effectiveness of the scheme and how vital it could be for other countries.

Since its launch in the UK in November 2020, NABERS UK has ensued a significant change. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) has, for many year, been the measure of building energy performance. This established a ‘design for compliance’ mindset, relying on a theoretical energy performance prediction rather than a measured one, causing a significant ‘performance gap’ between design intent and building operation. This existing performance gap is where NABERS UK can play a vital role, since it’s based on energy metered data of in-use buildings.

NABERS UK, and more specifically the ‘Design for Performance’ (DfP) framework, can also be used at the design stage to establish energy performance targets in new and refurbished office buildings. Project teams can target a NABERS UK rating during design, creating a digital twin model of the building as it is expected to operate, and verify it following the first year of operation.

NABERS UK uses the energy use intensity metric, which measures how a building actually performs in-use (kWh/m2 of Net Lettable Area, accounting for the whole-building energy consumption but excluding tenants lighting and small power) and is separate from carbon emissions comparisons. It also reflects the intensity of grid electricity at the time. Similar to other standards, it uses a consumer-friendly one-to-six star rating system to communicate performance accurately, ensuring accountability and transparency throughout the industry.

With an increased focus on the reduction of carbon emissions and the requirements to meet the net-zero targets of the Climate Change Act 2008, NABERS UK ratings will play a significant role in the ability to assess current performance, inform future plans to meet these targets and comply with the legislation that will no doubt follow and enable a long-awaited shift from a ‘design for compliance’ to a ‘design for performance’ culture.

Savills Earth is delivering NABERS UK Energy for Office and DfP ratings across their portfolio, advising landlords on Building Performance Platforms that can collect and assess the building performance data, which is a crucial tool in the challenge to drive building performance.

The NABERS UK rating scheme marks a significant development within the UK property sector that will play a crucial role in the country’s trajectory towards decarbonisation. It removes all the noise and complexities sometimes associated with other rating schemes and provides a very straightforward methodology to determine if a building is actually improving in performance, year-on-year.

Further information

Contact Yorgos Koronaios

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